"THE FUZZY BALL" is the latest in our compilation series that have accompanied each of our semi-irregular annual events we christened The Shoegazer Ball. The CDs are still available from our webstore now for FREE (shipping only). The extravagant outings were held yearly between 2002 and 2005 in both Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. The events and the accompanying compilations were assembled to not only celebrate and honor the predominantly UK-based Shoegazer movement of the late 80's and early 90’s, but also to showcase the growing resurgence of this movement in today's independent music scene. And we were lucky enough to have had some of the very best artists come out of the woodwork.

The yearly events featured some of the most adventurous bands we know playing cover versions of the legendary bands that allegedly created the "Shoegazer" sound; My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Spiritualized, Spaceman 3, Chapterhouse, Lush and Catherine Wheel among many others. As the story goes, the term "shoegaze" was coined by a British rock journalist who, after seeing a band perform live, wrote that the performers were constantly gazing at their shoes. In fact, it was the constant use of pedals and effects to achieve a certain sound that resulted in the band members spending most of the performance looking down at their equipment. In a treatise on the shoegazer evolution and its' current renaissance in Magnet magazine, Portland-based rock writer Corey Dubrowa wrote: "No matter what handle best described it, the sound of the British indie scene in the late 80's was most accurately expressed in liquid derivatives: waves of distortion, cascading guitar feedback, oceanic swirls of keyboard and percussion, rainswept sonic vistas, washes of sound where no one voice (human or instrumental) was distinguishable from another." (*Magnet, Issue 53).

Each compilation featured one song from each of the bands that participated in both the Seattle and Portland events and a few others that couldn't make the shows, but wanted to be involved. Below is a list of the amazing artists that have participated.

Thanks to the following who made it all possible: Under the Radar Magazine, KEXP, Cravedog CD & DVD Manufacturing, CD Forge, Jim Beam, The Willamette Week, CDBaby and the great venues, Chop Suey, The Crocodile Cafe, The Bossanova and The Fez.

2010 will see another resurgence of The Shoegazer’s Ball. We’re currently accepting submissions for performing artists and tracks for the forthcoming compilation. Please contact us if you’re up for it.

FINE PRINT

The CDs are free, but you will need to pay the small cost of packaging and stamps. When you place your order, your shopping cart will reflect a charge of $1.00. This is due to our credit card partner's minimum charge of $1.00 for all items. So what we've done is actually lowered the shipping costs for this release to reflect this. The net effect will be that the shipping charges for this CD are as low as it gets for any of the Reverb Webstore products.